Back in time to Gooloo Creek
Shoalhaven: | Australian First Nations research | Berry's Frankenstein | Cullunghutti - sacred mountain | Gooloo Creek, Conjola | Mount Gigenbullen | The Devil's Hands, Shoalhaven River | Ulladulla Mission |
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| Bunnair Creek caves rock art (McCarthy 1959). |
- Introduction
- What is it?
- Where is it?
- The past
- Rock art sites
- An Aboriginal Art Gallery
- A Conjola story
- Gooloo the Magpie
- References
- Acknowledgement
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1. Introduction
"Do you have a copy of an archaeological study of Gooloo Creek?" a friend recently asked.
"What?" I immediately thought to myself, never having previously heard this seemingly onomatopoeic, deep throated word gooloo, or any reference to the locality.
The inquirer went on to state that back in the 1970s, or earlier, some Aboriginal cultural heritage sites and artefacts had apparently been identified in the area of Gooloo Creak near Lake Conjola by members of the local Aboriginal community and archaeologists. Also, that when there was an attempt to later revisit the area, land owners would not grant access. This story was intriguing, though common, for there are many significant Indigenous cultural heritage sites in Australia that were once known and studied, but are now "lost", or unknown, even to community, and most especially to those who happen to be interested in this important element of Australia's cultural heritage.
So began, in May of 2024, a search on the present writer's part to discover, or uncover, what was apparently discovered "back in the day" in the Gooloo Creek, Conjola area. Could the report, or reports, be rediscovered, if it/they indeed existed? The author's experience over his 67 years has been that such inquiries usually contained an element of truth, and that that truth could prove to be minuscule or substantial. The seeker, who was himself of Indigenous heritage, in this instance felt that there was something there, and that it was close. He had, since about 2012, been a lessee of 15 ha of Crown Land in the area.
"Tell me about it..." I asked.
The land had apparently been farmed in the past, but much of it was now fenced off. Information was slowly passed on by him, in bits and pieces, some of which is laid out here. Like playing with a jigsaw puzzle, the more pieces possessed, the clearer the picture. However, there was also much to discover about nearby Country, about language and ceremony, and much to be learnt and rediscovered not just about that single parcel of land, for that single parcel of land was part of Mother Earth. The best this whitefella writer could do was therefore apply a few basic research skills and see if some of that story could be revealed. Therefore, a journey of discovery began, back in time to Gooloo Creek......
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2. What is it?
gooloo
[g : aya : lu]
gʊlu = shiny, radiant, vital, nice/good, alive (Illert 2022)
Gooloo is an Australian Aboriginal word, likely indigenous to the Conjola region. It has been used throughout Australia over time. For example, in 1833 a Western Australian vocabulary was published in a newspaper which identified gooloo as referring to a louse, or wingless insect (Lyon 1833). In 1839 Lt. George Grey noted that in an area of Western Australia goo-loo yin referred to a younger brother or sister, similar to the eastern Australian word djin which referred to a female (Grey 1839). According to anthropologist K. Langloh Parker, writing in 1896, gooloo refers to a magpie (Parker 1896). There is also a Gooloo Creek in southern Queensland. Of course the western New South Wales area, or town, of Gooloogong makes used of the word, with the ng extension denoting place or location. It is most famous for the world female No.1 tennis player Evonne Goolagong, born at Griffith near Gooloogong. The research of Dr. Illert during the 1990s on the language of southeastern Australia, which he termed Proto-Australian, provides a meaning for the word as a thing or place that is shiny, radiant, vital, nice/good, alive (Illert 2022). Its precise meaning or usage in regard to Gooloo Creek has not been revealed.
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3. Where is it?
Gooloo Creek is located near Lake Conjola, approximately 47 km south of Nowra on the south coast of New South Wales, Australia. It flows due east and lies to the west and east of the main road going south - the Princes Highway. The land inquired about is approximately 8 km from the coast, yet just a couple from the western edge of Lake Conjola. It is also close to the Gooloo Creek Wildflower Farm, famous for its beautiful red Waratahs. Gooloo Creek's origins lie on the eastern flank of Pointer Mountain, approximately 10 klicks to the west of the highway. It flows down the side of the mountain and heads roughly due east towards the Pacific, across the Princes Highway, and on to Lake Conjola where its fresh water mixes with the salty sea and together flow south east towards the ocean.
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| A section of Gooloo Creek, near Lake Conjola. |
The site of focus herein is on the eastern side of the road and comprises about 50 percentage farm and residential land, and the rest dry, scrubby bush and near shore swamp typical of this part of the South Coast. The bushy / swampy part is associated with the convoluted confluence of Gooloo Creek and Bunnair Creek on the south, which join up and flow into Conjola Creek. To the west, Bunnair Creek is joined by Cole's Creek, both of which contain associated rock art sites. To the southeast of the block is the small town of Fisherman's Paradise. The coming together of the two creeks creates something of a low lying island which is fenced off and, in the past, has been the subject of flooding. This is probably the reason it remains largely untouched and undeveloped, as the flooding and high water table would negate much of its suitability for the type of agricultural or residential development obvious in some of the nearby allotments. As part of the Lake Conjola catchment, the lack of development around creeks such as Gooloo is a good thing, and supportive of the maintenance of water quality and support for associated flora and fauna, include marine invertebrates and fish. The proof of this in is the name of the town - Fisherman's Paradise.
The majority of Gooloo Creek west of the highway is bush and either Crown Land or part of the nearby Budawang and Jerrawangala National Parks which extend to the south and west. Commercial forestry is also carried out in these areas. Too the north east and fronting on to the sea is Conjola National Park as well. On Google maps the region around Gooloo Creek appears largely dark green (native bush) or darkish blue (lake and ocean). To the immediate south and southeast is a triangular multicoloured parcel with the town of Fisherman's Paradise as its northern point of developed land bleeding into the towns and residential suburbs of Milton and Ulladulla. The 15 ha site at the centre of this present investigation is bordered on the east by the straight line of Conjola Creek, whose unnatural form lies in stark contrast to the curvaceous and pointed channels of Gooloo and Bunnair, suggesting human intervention since the arrival of Europeans in the area during the 1820s (Cambage 1916).
Now that we know the broad lay-of-the-land, we can move on to the history stuff. What do we know?
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4. The past
During 1959 archaeologist F.D. McCarthy published a paper in the Records of the Australian Museum on the cave art of the Lake Conjola region. Illustrated examples were given from the Cole's Creek (what he referred to at the time as Flat Rock Creek) and Bunnair Creek cave sites in the western reaches of heavily forested sandstone ranges and escarpments bordering the area. As one moves eastward onto the plains and waterways, sites such as caves and rock art become less common and complex. However, rock engravings take over, found on the hard, eroding sandstone by creeks and waterways. With food and other resources abundant along the coast, habitation was common, and evidence of habitation through grinding grooves remains. Over time that evidence has disappeared, especially where it once existed in the form of wooded and skin utensils, tools and weapons such as spears, canoes, womera, boomerang, colanders, possum skin rugs and huts. Spear heads, axe heads, ornaments and other hard wearing materials persisted in the archaeological record, as did evidence of their working, such as the aforementioned grinding grooves. Ceremonial sites which made use of rocks, such as bora grounds, were also found on occasion. The rock art was protected in caves or escarpment overhangs. The likelihood of artefacts being found was therefore slim in the creek and wetland areas such as around Lake Conjola, and even the swamp island of Gooloo Creek and Bunnair Creek. However, grinding grooves and the aforementioned hard rock and shell and bone items may be present. Burials also often took place in these soft, sandy sites. But once again, they were prone to erosion and eventual exposure or destruction at times of flood. In 1954 such an event took place in the vicinity of Lake Conjola, with a skeleton exposed. It was forwarded to the police station in Wollongong to the north, where it was identified as old and non-European. Its ultimate fate, like many other examples, was unknown. It may have ended up in a museum, or an unidentified grave off Country. Fortunately, since the 1970s reburial at the site of the discovery, or close to it, became the norm, in line with an increasing respect for Indigenous cultural protocols and traditions.
According to McCarthy's paper, rock art cave sites near the general Gooloo Creek area were found by A. Cock and F. White in the 1880s, though he did not mention that specific locality. With First Nations people present in Australia for more than 130,000 years according to recent scientific studies, it is now obvious that resource rich areas such a the east coast were popular and populated places. We know people were there, we just don't always have the scientific evidence to prove it, and the South Coast is a case in point, with many of the most ancient sites now underwater off the coast to the east due to sea level rise going back tens of thousands of years. But that does not matter. The evidence is often there in the stories still held by community and going back in the Dreamtime to the dawn of time; and in the attachment to Country of the descendants; and in the knowledge that One Belongs to Mother Earth despite intervening dislocation and intervention. This current journey / story is an example of just such a return to Country.
So what of the 1970s archaeological study? Well, that has yet to be found. However, the search is continuing as this is being written. In the interim, some discussion around local rock art sites, and stories from the past, are presented below.
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5. Rock art sites
Two areas of rock art near Gooloo Creek have been the subject of archaeological reports by F.D. McCarthy in 1959 and Peter Bindon in 1976. The latter visited and mapped the McCarthy sites, providing amendments and additions within his descriptions and drawings, where necessary. He included the following:
- CN1 - Flat Iron Creek - large shelter on a tributary of Cole's Creek, expanding upon McCarthy (1959). White pigment and charcoal figures of animals and humans and birds.
- CN2 - Flat Iron Creek Site - on a tributary of Cole's Creek, expanding upon McCarthy (1959). White pigment and charcoal figures of animals, platypus, goanna, humans, fish and implements.
- CN3 - Flat Iron Creek Site - on a tributary of Cole's Creek, expanding upon McCarthy (1959). White and red pigment and charcoal figure of human and lines.
- CN4 - Bunnair Creek Shelter - expanding upon McCarthy (1959).
- CN5 - Bunnair Creek Shelter - expanding upon McCarthy (1959).
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| Cole's ( |
The richness and variety of this rock art is noted in the example illustrated at the head of this article. It was associated with story telling, ceremony and ritual, and domestic issues, and offers a door into the life of the local people hundreds, if not thousands of years ago.
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6. An Aboriginal Art Gallery 1902
* 25 October 1902, The Ulladulla and Milton Times. Description bu 'Boomerang' of rock art galleries on Coal Creek (Cole's Creek) just to the south of Gooloo Creek.
An Aboriginal Art Gallery.
Contributed.
Some 20 years ago, Mr Arthur Cork, of Willow Bank, and F. White, when returning from a shooting excursion from the mountains noticed in a cave some strange drawings evidently of aboriginal origin, and mentioned the circumstances on their return. With a view of making a careful examination of the spot, on Friday last Capt. James Cork, of Woodlands, Railway Inspector E. Milne, and Mr. J. Higgins, made an excursion and succeeded in reaching the cave and making a careful examination of the markings and general surroundings. The route is decidedly rough but there are many beautiful glimpses of fern bowers and crystal waterholes surrounded by moss covered rocks, which compensated in great measure for the labour which the ascent of the mountain slopes entailed. From a geological point of view there are many interesting phases to be met with en route. The art gallery itself, was found to be a depression in the sandstone which forms the walls of the upper portion of a long deep gully the waters of which form a branch of the Coal creek, one of the feeders of Conjola Lake. It is situated about 2 miles up from a large waterhole. The depression forms what is usually called a rock or cave shelter and is 70 feet long by about 14 feet deep with a shelf or ledge running the full length. Considerably over one hundred figures are to be seen, a considerable number of which are, however, vague and indistinct owing to the great lapse of time since their execution and the attrition of the more exposed surface of the rock caused by the weathering to which all sandstone is more or less liable. It is however, safe to say that the aboriginal artist made use of every available portion of the cave surface in his efforts to depict the various phases of native life as they present themselves to his savage and untutored mind. The majority of the sketches have been boldly outlined with charcoal and in many instances filled in with some white pigment known to the darkies, and also a red substance resembling ochre. Where the surface is sheltered the figures are very distinct and there is no doubt that for many years after the completion of the work the whole must have been strikingly and wonderfully clear, and, from an aboriginal point of view, the artists efforts would be illustrative of the highest possible type of artistic culture. The sketches themselves include crude efforts to depict the various native animals, one or two of the drawings of Kangaroos being particularly good as also a dingo. Fish and native weapons are also included in his efforts. At the western end of the cave a group of 9 figures about 20 inches long appear to be illustrative of a corrobboree and it must be admitted that the effect, although weird and crude in the extreme, left little to the imagination. A many of the sketches are difficult to clearly define as it would appear that the artist in his desire to make the most of the broken sand stone 'canvas' has distorted the subject to suit the available spaces. The red ochre markings are chiefly of a design resembling a broad arrow or the herring or the zig zag pattern, so much in evidence on the old aboriginal wooden implements. Taken as a whole the drawings compare more than favourably with those already known to exist in the vicinity of the Hawkesbury River, and the Milton artist was undoubtedly up to date. Immediately in front of the cave is a large block of sandstone covered with markings or grooves made by the darkies when sharpening their stone 'mogos' or tomahawk and polished stone axes. Although a careful search was made there was no other remains of aboriginal life noticed, although as the floor of cave shelter is covered some foot or more with the accumulated debris of vegetable deposit and sand, a thorough overhawl might reveal something of the kind. As much as time would permit the rock depressions in the vicinity were examined but without result, but about 400 yards lower down the gully and on the eastern side another series of sketches were discovered. There is a marked difference between those of the western side and those on the eastern cave so much so that there can be little doubt that they are the work of different artists. In the latter there are only about 12 figures and they are descriptive of iguanas, come back boomerangs, and apparently fish. One of the iguanas is marvellously true to nature and the outlines bold and clear. It is 4 ft. long. One of the fish figures has been attempted on a large scale, and is considerably over five feet long, and from the array of teeth would apparently be intended to depict a shark. If is noticeable that the Eastern artist avoided attempting any of the more difficult subjects such as his Western rival took in hand; whether this was from native modesty or from not having been taught in the higher branches of the aboriginal artistic schools, will never be known. What he has drawn is, however, certainly, truer to life, and gave good promise tor something more consistent with European ideas of perspective. It would be of interest if it could be known definitely whether the two art galleries described are the only specimens of aboriginal art in this district, or whether others are known which could be identified as being of the same school of art. Possibly there are more specimens of the work in the sandstone nooks and shelters along the adjacent highlands. Crude and imperfect as they are from a European standpoint, it is a matter for much regretful speculation that they are amongst the very few relics of a people who lived, and in their forest freedom enjoyed life before the advent of the white man, less than one hundred years ago. It is startling to think that the last 70 years has witnessed the complete passing of a type of savage life which judged free from the prejudice resulting from the degradation of the modern type, had many admirable features, but the fact remains that contact with our boasted, civilization means practical annihilation to dark skinned tribes of Australia not so rapid as in Tasmania where only 72 years after white settlement the total extinction of the race was complete, but, nevertheless sufficiently swift as to justify surprise and regret. "Boomerang." Note. In 1876 Truganini, of Bruni Island, the last of the Tasmanians died. The last male survivor passed away in 1869.
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7. A Conjola story 1934
* The Shoalhaven Telegraph, Nowra, Wednesday, 9 May 1934. An Aboriginal story retold by F. McGee of Conjola.
Aboriginal Story
Re Origin of Sussex Inlet
A number of years ago I was loafing about Wandandian and came in contact with a very old pure-blood Aboriginal named Gidgee. Being keenly interested in our native blacks, their traditions and tribal stories, I bribed the old fellow with the promise of a pound of tobacco if he would tell me a story relative to his tribal territory or his people, and, to my keyed-up attention, the old fellow unburdened himself thus: —
"Well, boss, I suppose you know that the name 'Wandandian' in our language means 'The Home of the Lost Lovers.' The old men of our tribe used to tell us that a young blackfellow and his lubra, hunting on the eastern side of the Wambla Mountains, got lost, and eventually found themselves in this locality, where they decided to settle, and after a number of years developed into the powerful Wandandian tribe. Our territory was bounded on the north by a line running along a green flat now known as Sussex Inlet. It extended westward to Sassafras, and then in a southerly direction till intersected by a line along the north side of Conjola Lake to the foot of the Wambla Mountains. You see, then, our territory took in all the land from Sussex Inlet to Lake Conjola, and away back to the mountains on the west. We could fish and procure oysters, etc., on our side of the lake, but we daren't land on the other side or there would be war; and we weren't too eager to antagonise the Conjola tribe, for they were big fellows and good fighters. Conjola Lake, boss, was a grand place for fish and oysters; plenty deep water. We often had skirmishes with Conjola and Tomerong tribes, when they did a bit of poaching, and a few of the contending parties would come back to camp with a few nullah lumps or spear scratches, but very rarely was anyone killed. It was good fun, boss."
"In those old times long ago, boss, there wasn't any Sussex Inlet at all: just a beautiful green flat from Wandandian to the sea, over which the black men hunted wallabies, wallaroos, kangaroos, and even emus. My word, boss, them bin good old times of plenty right enough: Bandicoot, possum, wallaby, kangaroo, Wild duck, goanna, carpet snake, wallaroo; Lubras all smiles, good looking, graceful and tall; Piceaninnie so fat, no cryum at all."
"Hey, Gidgee! You're waxing poetical, aren't you?"
"Wha's that you say about wax, boss? No wax in them days — at least nebber hear old men say so. But blackfellow plenty big and fat; teeth strong and white like dog's teeth. Plenty good tucker them days, boss. Tucker nowadays mak-um poor black fellow's teeth rot all-a-same white man's."
"But, Gidgee, I thought you were going to tell me something about Sussex Inlet. You say it wasn't there a long time ago. Please go on with the story."
"Well, boss, one day our King, Goondi, hav-um "rain brave" (You mean "brain wave," don't you, Gidgee?). Yes, boss, tha's it, "brain wave." I bin hear-um white fella talk like that, but bin forget. Yes, Goondi hav-um big "brain wave'' right enough; and says he: "I'll root a furrow right down the green flat to the sea and see what happens." He told his chief artificer to set to work as he inspected, and in a few days, with the aid of stone tomahawks and fire, a plough was made much like the ploughs you see now, boss, only that it was all wood and a bit rough. When it was finished to his satisfaction, he chose 20 of the biggest men of the tribe, fixed up traces of wattle bark, and hitching them to his plough started off down the green flat. A number of lubras and nearly half the tribe accompanied the King and his black team, to carry weapons and to procure and cook food. My word! boss, I bin think-it a plurry grand picnic. First evening they got to within a couple of miles of the spot where now stands Mr. Jacob Ellmoos' tourist house. That night they held a grand corroboree; but early next morning Goondi ordered his artificer to make a new plough, as the point of the first had become so worn as to be no further serviceable. However, in a couple of days a new plough was made, and the furrow continued right to the sea. Next day they returned to Wandandian. There was great talk about the plough furrow. The lubras reckoned they had a "budgery" time, but some of the old men, and the medicine man in particular, thought Goondi had a rat. But they didn't say it out loud, boss; no fear! They were afraid of the King. And as it turned out, he showed the tribe that he knew a thing or two; for in a week after the ploughing, a terrible big old man flood came rushing down the green flat, cutting and tearing out the furrow, and the erosion was so stupendous that a channel 8 or 10 chains wide was torn out right to the sea. When the flood went down, the sea water rushed in, and made what you white fellas now call Sussex Inlet. You see that big steamer punt, long-a Mr. Watt, go up and down Inlet? Well, I bin think-it he owe big vote of thanks to King Goondi."
"Your story seems hard to believe, Gidgee."
"Well, you ask Mr. Barney Tiernum, Nowra. He wise man; know a thing or two."
"Ought to be member ob "Parliament" you mean, don't you?"
"Yes, boss, tha's the word; too plurry big for poor black fella mouth. Tha's all, boss."
"Well, Gidgee, here's your tobacco. I think you have earned it, and some other time you might tell me some more veracious stories of your tribe."
F. McGee. Conjola.
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8. Gooloo the Magpie 1896
Source: Australian Legendary Tales - Folk-Lore of the Noongahburrahs as told to the Piccaninnies, Collected by Mrs. K. Langloh Parker, With Introduction by Andrew Lang, M.A. Illustrations by a Native Artist [Tommy McRae], and Specimen of the Native Text, David Nutt, London, and Melville, Mullen & Slade, Strand, Melbourne, 1896, 270-271.This is a story from Victoria, south of the Lake Conjola region.
Gooloo the Magpie
Gooloo was a very old woman, and a very wicked old woman too, as this story will tell. During all the past season, when the grass was thick with seed, she had gathered much doonburr, which she crushed into meal as she wanted it for food. She used to crush it on a big flat stone with small flat stones - the big stone was called a dayoorl. Gooloo ground a great deal of the doonburr seed to put away for immediate use, the rest she kept whole, to be ground as required. Soon after she had finished her first grinding, a neighbouring tribe came along and camped near where she was. One day the men all went out hunting, leaving the women and the children in the camp. After the men had been gone a little while, Gooloo the magpie came to their camp to talk to the women. She said,
"Why do you not go hunting too? Many are the nests of the wurranunnahs round here, and thick is the honey in them. Many and ripe are the bumbles hanging now on the humble trees; red is the fruit of the grooees, and opening with ripeness the fruit of the guiebets. Yet you sit in the camp and hunger, until your husbands return with the dinewan and bowrah they have gone forth to slay. Go, women, and gather of the plenty that surrounds you. I will take care of your children, the little Wahroogabs."
"Your words are wise," the women said. "It is foolish to sit here and hunger, when near at hand yams are thick in the ground, and many fruits wait but the plucking. We will go and fill quickly our comebees and goolays, but our children we will take with us."
"Not so," said Gooloo, "foolish indeed were you to do that. You would tire the little feet of those that run, and tire yourselves with the burden of those that have to be carried. No, take forth your comebees and goolays empty, that ye may bring back the more. Many are the spoils that wait only the hand of the gatherer. Look ye, I have a durrie made of fresh doonburr seed, cooking just now on that bark between two fires; that shall your children eat, and swiftly shall I make them another. They shall eat and be full ere their mothers are out of sight. See, they come to me now, they hunger for durrie, and well will I feed them. Haste ye then, that ye may return in time to make ready the fires for cooking the meat your husbands will bring. Glad will your husbands be when they see that ye have filled your goolays and comebees with fruits, and your wirrees with honey. Haste ye, I say, and do well."
Having listened to the words of Gooloo, the women decided to do as she said, and, leaving their children with her, they started forth with empty comebees, and armed with combos, with which to chop out the bees' nests and opossums, and with yam sticks to dig up yams. When the women had gone, Gooloo gathered the children round her and fed them with durrie, hot from the coals. Honey, too, she gave them, and bumbles which she had buried to ripen. When they had eaten, she hurried them off to her real home, built in a hollow tree, a little distance away from where she had been cooking her durrie. Into her house she hurriedly thrust them, followed quickly herself, and made all secure. Here she fed them again, but the children had already satisfied their hunger, and now they missed their mothers and began to cry. Their crying reached the ears of the women as they were returning to their camp. Quickly they came at the sound which is not good in a mother's ears. As they quickened their steps they thought how soon the spoils that lay heavy in their comebees would comfort their children. And happy they, the mothers, would feel when they fed the Wahroogahs with the dainties they had gathered for them. Soon they reached the camp, but, alas! where were their children? And where was Gooloo the magpie?
"They are playing wahgoo," they said, "and have hidden themselves."
The mothers hunted all round for them, and called aloud the names of their children and Gooloo. But no answer could they hear and no trace could they find. And yet every now and then they heard the sound of children wailing. But seek as they would they found them not. Then loudly wailed the mothers themselves for their lost Wahroogahs, and, wailing, returned to the camp to wait the coming of the black fellows. Heavy were their hearts, and sad were their faces when their husbands returned. They hastened to tell the black fellows when they came, how Gooloo had persuaded them to go hunting, promising if they did so that she would feed the hungry Wahroogahs, and care for them while they were away, but—and here they wailed again for their poor Wahroogahs. They told how they had listened to her words and gone; truth had she told of the plenty round, their comebees and goolays were full of fruits and spoils they had gathered, but, alas! they came home with them laden only to find their children gone and Gooloo gone too. And no trace could they find of either, though at times they heard a sound as of children wailing. Then wroth were the men, saying:
"What mothers are ye to leave your young to a stranger, and that stranger a Gooloo, ever a treacherous race? Did we not go forth to gain food for you and our children? Saw ye ever your husbands return from the chase empty handed? Then why, when ye knew we were gone hunting, must ye too go forth and leave our helpless ones to a stranger? Oh, evil, evil indeed is the time that has come when a mother forgets her child. Stay ye in the camp while we go forth to hunt for our lost Wahroogahs. Heavy will be our hands on the women if we return without them."
The men hunted the bush round for miles, but found no trace of the lost Wahroogahs, though they too heard at times a noise as of children's voices wailing. But beyond the wailing which echoed in the mothers' ears for ever, no trace was found of the children. For many days the women sat in the camp mourning for their lost Wahroogahs, and beating their heads because they had listened to the voice of Gooloo.
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9. References
Bindon, Peter, The devil's hands, a survey of the painted shelters of the Shoalhaven River basin, B.A. Hons. thesis, Department of Prehistory and Anthropology, Australian National University, 1976, 99p.
Cambage, R.H., Captain Cook's Pigeon House and Early South Coast Exploration, The Ulladulla and Milton Times, 9 September 1916.
Gooloo the Magpie and the Wahroogah, Remembering the Past - Australia [webpage], accessed 28 May 2024.
Grey, George, Vocabulary of the Aboriginal Language of Western Australia - G, The Perth Gazette and Western Australian Journal, 7 September 1839.
Lake Conjola Flood Study, BMT WBM, July 2007, 159p.
Lyon, R. M., A glance at the manners and language of the Aboriginal Inhabitants of Western Australia, with a short vocabulary, The Perth Gazette and Western Australian Journal, 13 April 1833.
McCarthy, F. D., Cave art of the Conjola District New South Wales, Records of the Australian Museum, 24(13), 9 March 1959, 191–202, plate 22.
McGee, F., Aboriginal Story - Origin of Sussex Inlet, The Shoalhaven Telegraph, 9 May 1934.
Illert, Chris, The Proto-Australian Aboriginal language, blogger.com, 20 December 2022. Complied by Michael Organ.
Parker, K. Langloh, Australian Legendary Tales, David Nutt, London, 1896.
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10. Acknowledgements
In the compilation of this article I would like to thank Mitch Laskar for setting me off on this path of discovery. The journey of rediscovery has just begun, and here we can add and subtract as we go along.
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Shoalhaven: | Australian First Nations research | Berry's Frankenstein | Cullunghutti - sacred mountain | Gooloo Creek, Conjola | Mount Gigenbullen | The Devil's Hands, Shoalhaven River | Ulladulla Mission |
Last updated: 30 May 2024
Michael Organ, Australia (Home)
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